Monthly Archives: March 2013

Many marketers have made no secret of their desire to target ads to mobile users based on their location.

But a new study indicates that geo-location targeting — even when theoretically “anonymous” — raises significant privacy concerns. For the study, researchers at MIT and the Catholic University of Louvain studied fifteen months’ worth of “anonymized” data gleaned from 1.5 million people over a 15-month period. From that trove of information, the researchers concluded that “human mobility traces are highly unique.”

The report states: “In a dataset where the location of an individual is specified hourly, and with a spatial resolution equal to that given by the carrier’s antennas, four spatio-temporal points are enough to uniquely identify 95% of the individuals.”

Even when the researchers “coarsened” the data, they still found that people could be identified. “Hence,” the paper continues, “even coarse datasets provide little anonymity.”

That conclusion doesn’t mean that geo-location targeting is illegal, only that it’s probably not anonymous in any meaningful sense. But any companies who say in privacy policies that they collect anonymous geo-location data collection might need to rethink that language.

Overall, the report offers yet another piece of evidence that individuals can be identified based on “anonymous” data — a prospect that privacy experts like Paul Ohm have warned of for years.

To some extent, this has already happened. The most famous example occurred in 2006, when AOL released three months worth of search queries for 650,000 users. The searches alone provided clues to some of those users’ identities.

That’s not the only incident. Several years ago, two computer scientists at the University of Texas reported that it was possible to identify users by comparing reviews of obscure movies on Netflix with reviews on Imdb.com that were published under screennames. Last year, a federal prosecutor was identified as an anonymous commenter at the Times-Picayune‘s NOLA.com, based on the vocabulary he used in his posts.

Feed-Driven Apps
Live app editions are powered by XML and JSON feeds which means publishers’ existing online content can be output into beautiful and stylish editions, optimised for reading on iOS tablet devices.

Customise and Enhance
Tailor your app to fit your brand by adding logos, colours, fonts, background images and more. You can also control how your content is categorised by choosing which sections appear in your app.

Multiple Template Options
Choose from a library of templates and a range of options to meet your internal resource and content. You can also create your own custom front covers and article layouts using PageSuite’s unique tools.

Deliver 24/7
Publishers have complete control over the scheduling of their Live editions and all past editions are automatically sent to the archive so subscribers can catch up on any news that they’ve missed via the edition timeline.

Drive Revenue
Live Apps feature Newsstand integration and offer full integration with existing subscriber databases. There are also multiple advertising and sponsorship opportunities with interactive full-page interstitial adverts and MPU slots.

Personalised Content
Readers can instantly access articles they want to read about by choosing which feeds populate their app. Publishers also have the opportunity to further monetise content by offering additional feeds made available through in-app payments.

While the first iteration of Flipboard focused exclusively on consumption and discovery, Flipboard 2.0, out today, adds a new dimension to the experience: content creation and curation.

Flipboard remains one of the most beautiful ways to peruse the day’s news, photos and social media sharings. While the first iteration of Flipboard was all about consumption and discovery, today’s update adds a new dimension to the experience: content creation and curation.

Flipboard 2.0 transcends its position as a humble, albeit graphically rich, news reader to become an even more useful tool. You can bend it to your will in a variety of ways, creating an easy, visual way to bookmark content for later, aggregate news around a niche interest or even make a handsome video or audio playlist. Flipboard is going up again a host of apps and services, like Pinterest and Pocket, but all in one package.

The new app still looks and feels, for the most part, like what you’re used to, but adds the ability to create your own magazines, which you can choose to share or keep private.

To build one, simply hit the plus sign found in the lower right-hand corner of a graphic. This pops open a menu that lets you “flip” (yep, Flipboard is actionable now) items into one or more magazines. Anything goes here — examples range from “My Saved Articles” and “Recipes for Later” to “Our Modern Ruins” (a photo collection of abandoned buildings) and magazines dedicated exclusively to, say, cyclocross.

Depression era individuals are conservative, compulsive savers, maintain low debt and use more secure financial products. Tend to be patriotic, oriented toward work before pleasure, respect for authority, have a sense of moral obligation.

People in this cohort shared in a common goal of defeating the Axis powers. There was an accepted sense of “deferment” among this group, contrasted with the emphasis on “me” in more recent cohorts.

Post-War Cohort: Born 1928-1945

Coming of Age: 1946-1963Age in 2004: 59 to 76Current Population: 41 million (declining)

This generation had significant opportunities in jobs and education as the War ended and a post-war economic boom struck America. The growth in Cold War tensions, the potential for nuclear war and other never before seen threats, led to levels of discomfort and uncertainty throughout the generation. Members of this group value security, comfort, and familiar, known activities and environments.

Boomers I or The Baby Boomers: Born 1946-1954

Coming of Age: 1963-1972Age in 2004: 50-58Current Population: 33 million

Baby Boomers were defined as those born between 1945 and 1964. That generation encompassed 71 million people 20 years apart in age. It didn’t compute to have those born in 1964 compared with those born in 1946. Attitudes, behaviors and society were vastly different.All the elements that help to define a cohort were violated by the broad span of years originally included in the concept of the Baby Boomers. The first Boomer segment is bounded by the Kennedy and Martin Luther King assassinations, the Civil Rights movements and the Vietnam War. Boomers I were in or protested the War. Boomers I had good economic opportunities and were largely optimistic about the potential for America and their own lives.

from the invention of upcs and rfids to the launch of the iphone and facebook, the 20 great, not-so-great and sometimes scary moments in big data.

1) November 1936: The U.S. government starts issuing Social Security numbers.

2) June 8, 1949: George Orwell’s “Nineteen Eighty-Four” is first published.

3) Some time in 1971 (the specific date is lost to history): IBM engineer George Laurer creates the Universal Product Code (UPC).

4) Jan. 23, 1973: Inventor Mario Cardullo is issued a patent for a memory-equipped passive radio transponder device — a precursor of RFID (radio-frequency identification) technology that will allow for everything from E-ZPass tags for electronic toll collection, supply-chain management at retailers like Walmart, and the “Internet of Things,” an interconnected world of billions of radio-tagged consumer products.

Like this:

Digital revenues were up 16.6 percent in 2012 on a year over year basis. This isn’t as strong as the annual growth in 2011, but it crushes all other platforms. Below, we charted out this year’s growth in red, and in light grey you can see how each platform did in years past.

The growing platforms are online and cable. The shrinking platforms are magazines and newspapers.

Like this:

It is once again time for the NCAA “March Madness” basketball tournament. The eventual champions will get to bask in the national spotlight until the next cruis

Scott Capito‘s insight:

It is once again time for the NCAA "March Madness" basketball tournament. The eventual champions will get to bask in the national spotlight until the next cruise-ship disaster/shark attack/episode of "Girls"/baseball season/ happens. And sure, winning a basketball title is worth bragging about; but we all know the real champion is the institution of higher education that can charge the most tuition and still have enough students to keep its rejection letter printer warm. It’s The Awl’s annual NCAA bracket by tuition, using the college information resource Peterson’s.* (Where available, in-state tuition was used.)

Drama Shot: Turns a string of photos into a timelapse.Dual View: This lets S4 owners use both the front and rear cameras at the same time, which can also be used during video calls.Group Play: Lets people share media between one another without Wi-Fi. Also syncs up music playback between devices.Story Album: Pulls together photos you’ve taken and can be turned into photo albums.S Health: Uses the S4’s onboard sensors to track and estimate personal fitness.S Translator: Translates voice or text within certain applications, and works offline.S Voice Drive: Takes voice commands while driving, and turns up the size of text. Works over Bluetooth with Bluetooth-enabled cars.Samsung Optical Reader: Scans business cards and QR codes for text.Samsung WatchON: Uses the built-in IR to control other electronics like TVs and set top boxes.

Smart Pause: Pauses video playback when it detects that you’re not looking. The same technology works for scrolling up and down on a Web page, or e-mail.